Elder Flower “Champagne”

This may be your last chance to make this delicious naturally sparkling drink. Elder trees are native and found all around the countryside and in gardens. The flowering is coming to an end but if you look hard you can still find fresh flowers to harvest.

Ingredients

Method

Wash or shake the elder flower heads to remove any bugs that might by crawling on them

Place the flowers in a plastic food bucket, add the vinegar, lemon juice and lemon zest

Add the water a litre at a time stirring in some of the fruit sugar to dissolve.

When all the water has been added, put a lid on the bucket and leave it for two or three days

Strain the liquid through muslin cloth into sterilized bottles. You can use either glass bottles with screw caps or plastic bottles that previously had fizzy water or fizzy drinks.

Leave in a cupboard for three weeks. Check the bottles regularly and unscrew them slightly every now and again to ensure that there is not too much pressure building up in the bottles, other wise they might explode.

Notes:

Always be sure that you have correctly identified the plant when foraging wild food or harvesting in the garden. More wild food recipes on my blog: Blooms 'n' Food: http://wp.me/pzGLc-r7